Lodi makes good on prayer promise of inclusiveness

Sunday

Nov 15, 2009 at 12:20 AMNov 15, 2009 at 12:22 AM

LODI - For weeks, the city of Lodi shared a common battle with three other California cities, whose prayers before government meetings were challenged by atheist activists championing the separation of church and state.

Daniel Thigpen

LODI - For weeks, the city of Lodi shared a common battle with three other California cities, whose prayers before government meetings were challenged by atheist activists championing the separation of church and state.

Lodi, however, distinguished itself from those other locales in its initial display of its chosen resolution: The first person to offer remarks under the city's new invocation policy did not pray to Jesus or any other religious deity.

He is an atheist who provided a secular message of service.

Lodi leaders designed an invocation policy they hoped would foster diversity and inclusiveness while balancing speakers' free speech rights after their routine City Council invocations were attacked for being overwhelmingly Christian.

They say the Nov. 4 "call to service" by local activist David Diskin - who opposed any prayer before the twice monthly meetings - is an example of the city's new policy in action.

Whether it will shield Lodi from any future lawsuits remains to be seen.

"If they wanted to muddy the waters legally, then that's a good thing to do," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the Wisconsin-based group that targeted Lodi for its prayers that frequently referenced Christ.

She said it would matter little if the city invited a "token rabbi or token atheist" to offer the invocations when, in all likelihood, most will remain predominantly sectarian in a town where most of the religious groups are Christian.

Still, she gave the city a little credit for Diskin's remarks.

"At least it's a tiny, tiny way to balance" the prayers, she said. "It's better than nothing."

The other three California cities challenged over their invocations - Tracy, Turlock and Tehachapi, to the south - have each voted to continue their regular prayers.

While none opted to restrict speech during the invocations, neither did any city go as far as Lodi to specify in its written rules the inclusion of secular comments before meetings.

Lodi City Attorney Steve Schwabauer said Diskin was the first person to express an interest in offering remarks after the city adopted a new policy late last month.

For years, city rules required the prayers to be nonsectarian, but officials rarely enforced the guidelines. Lodi's new policy allows for unrestricted prayers or secular remarks before the official start of each City Council meeting.

Schwabauer said he was pleased Diskin could be the first to participate under the new guidelines.

"The response to the open invocation policy is up to the public," Schwabauer said. "I'm glad there appears to be an opportunity for the community to come together on this. Out of dispute comes resolution."

Since approving its new rules, the city has sent roughly 125 invitations to offer invocations to local clergy and groups, City Clerk Randi Johl said.

A religious leader from the Lodi Muslim Mosque was scheduled for an upcoming meeting but pulled out because of scheduling conflicts, she said. Officials have not yet received a response from the Deshmesh Darbar Sikh Temple, just south of the city limits.

For his part, Diskin said he appreciated the opportunity to speak earlier this month and that he's received mostly positive feedback, with just "a couple of naysayers."

Diskin's group, Lodi United, had advocated a moment of silence in place of the prayers during the height of the debate. He said he hopes his participation encourages other secular messages before the government meetings.

"We're still against anybody coming up and giving an invocation that would make people feel unwelcome or ostracized and promote one belief over another," he said.